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Scientists have detected mysterious and powerful radio signals coming from inside the Milky Way.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are a puzzling phenomenon first detected in 2007, but previous observations have never identified them from within our galaxy.
They’re short, but incredibly powerful – they emit a lot more energy in just one millisecond than the sun all day.
The radio burst had more power than the sun emits in a day.
Three research papers published in the journal Nature, based on observations made around the world – in Canada, the United States, China and even from space – have potentially uncovered the source.
Earlier this year, on April 27, two space telescopes detected powerful X-rays and gamma radiation from a cosmic body on the other side of the galaxy.
When astronomers trained telescopes on Earth to observe that region the next day, they spotted the enormously powerful and fast radio blast, which they named FRB 200428, after the date.
What they noticed was astounding. It has been described as “the brightest radio burst ever detected in our galaxy” by Dr. Daniele Michilli, McGill University astrophysicist.
Astronomers don’t really know what causes FRBs, but the new signal detected from inside our galaxy offers some vital information that could help solve the mystery.
Since this FRB came from inside our Milky Way, astronomers were able to trace its likely source: a type of neutron star that has a strong magnetic field called a magnetar.
This cosmic body is the remnant of a star that long ago collapsed in a supernova explosion about 30,000 light years from Earth.
Magnetars, like other neutron stars, are incredibly dense. Despite their diameter of potentially just 12 miles (20 km) in diameter, they have a mass of about 140% that of the sun, which is 800,000 miles (1.4 million km) in diameter.
“There is this great mystery about what these great bursts of energy would produce, which until now we have seen coming from the other side of the universe,” said Professor Kiyoshi Masui, assistant professor of physics at MIT.
Professor Masui, who led one of the research projects in the FRB, added: ‘This is the first time we have been able to link one of these exotic fast radio bursts to a single astrophysical object.’
However, even if the astronomers’ theory is correct, the FRB originated from a magnetar, it is still unclear how highly magnetized neutron stars can produce bursts of energy and range of electromagnetic emissions at the same time.
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